Rocket Record

[TacitBlue]

Interesting article about the EZ-Rocket
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10008214/
I'm suprised that the record is only 11 miles.

[flyboy 28]

I wonder why these futuristic planes have foward canards as opposed to horizontal stabilizers?

[beaky]

I wonder why these futuristic planes have foward canards as opposed to horizontal stabilizers?

It's not that futuristic except for the rockets... this design first flew in 1975; very popular kit design.
The advantage of a canard  forward of the CG is that it'll stall before the wing if  angle of  attack is wrong for a given airspeed, so the nose'll drop almost before you know it, just enough for the wing to get a grip again. They're very hard to stall, and tend to float down steeply but slowly if you manage to get things screwed up despite that.